what kind of men they are, and what they think of God and religion: whom the Bishop of Rome has inconsiderately enough, before they had made their defence, without example and without law, condemned for heretics, upon a bare report, that they differed from him and his in some points of religion.

11. And though St. Jerome will allow no man to be patient under the suspicion of heresy, yet we will not behave ourselves neither sourly, nor irreverently, nor angrily, though he ought not to be esteemed either sharp nor abusive, who speaks nothing but the truth; no, we will leave that sort of oratory to our adversaries, who think whatsoever they speak, although it be never so sharp and reproachful, modest and apposite, when it is applied to us, and they are as little concerned whether it be true or false; but we, who defend nothing but the truth, have no need of such base arts.

12. Now if we make it appear, and that not obscurely and craftily, but bond fide, before God, truly, ingenuously, clearly, and perspicuously, that we teach the most holy Gospel of God, and that the ancient fathers, and the whole primitive church, are on our side, and that we have not without just cause left them, and returned to the Apostles and the ancient catholic fathers; and if they who so much detest our doctrine, and pride themselves in the name of Catholics, shall apparently see that all those pretences of antiquity, of which they so immoderately glory, belong not to them, and that there is more strength in our cause than they thought there was; then we hope that none of them will be so careless of his salvation, but he will at some time or other bethink himself which side he ought to join with. Certainly if a man be not of an hard and obdurate heart, and resolved not to hear, he can never repent the having once consi

dered our defence, and the attending what is said by us, and whether it be agreeable or no to the Christian religion.

13. For whereas they call us heretics; that is so dreadful a crime, that except it be apparently seen, except it be palpable, and, as it were, to be felt with our hands and fingers, it ought not to be easily believed, that a Christian is or can be guilty of it; for heresy is a renunciation of our salvation, a rejection of the grace of God, and a departure from the body and spirit of Christ. But this was ever the custom and usage of them and of their forefathers, that if any presumed to complain of their errors, and desired the reformation of religion, they condemned them forthwith for heretics, as innovators and factious men; Christ himself was called a Samaritan, for no other cause, but for that they thought he had made a defection to a new religion or heresy. And St. Paul the Apostle, being called in question, was accused of heresy, to which he replied, Acts, xxiv. 14, After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the Prophets.

14. In short, all that religion which we Christians now profess, in the beginning of Christianity was by the Pagans called a sect or heresy; with these words they filled the cars of princes, that when, out of prejudice, they had once possessed their minds with an aversion for us, and that they were persuaded, that whatever we said was factious and heretical, they might be diverted from reflecting upon the thing itself, or even hearing or considering the cause; but by how much the greater and more grievous this crime is, so much the rather ought it to be proved by clear and strong arguments, especially at this time, because men begin now-a-days a

little to distrust the fidelity of their oracles, and to inquire into their doctrine with much greater industry than has heretofore been employed; for the people of God in this age are quite of another disposition than they were heretofore, when all the responses and dictates of the popes of Rome were taken for Gospel, and all religion depended upon their authority; the holy Scriptures, and the writings of the apostles and prophets, are every where now to be had, out of which all the true and catholic doctrine may be proved, and all heresies may be refuted.

15. But seeing they can produce nothing out of the Scriptures against us, it is very injurious and cruel to call us heretics, who have not revolted from Christ, nor from the apostles, nor from the prophets. By the sword of Scripture Christ overcame the devil when he was tempted by him; with these weapons every high thing that exalteth itself against God is to be brought down and dispersed; " for all Scripture," saith St. Paul (2 Tim. iii. 16), " is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, that the man of God may be perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works;" and accordingly, the holy fathers have never fought against heretics with any other arms that what the Scriptures have afforded them. St. Augustine, when he disputed against Petilianus, a Donatist heretic, useth these words: "Let not (saith he) these words be heard, I say, or Thou sayest, but rather let us say, Thus saith the Lord; let us seek the church there, let us judge of our cause by that." And St. Jerome saith, "Let whatever is pretended to be delivered by the Apostles, and cannot be proved by the testimony of the written word, be struck with the sword of God." And St. Ambrose to the emperor Gratian, "Let the Scriptures (saith he), let the apostles, let the prophets, let Christ be

interrogated." The Catholic fathers and bishops of those times did not doubt but our religion might be sufficiently proved by Scripture; nor durst they esteem any man an heretic, whose error they could not perspicuously and clearly prove such by Scripture. And as to us, we may truly reply with St. Paul, Acts, xxiv. 14: After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are in the written law and the prophets;" or the writings of the apostles.

16. If therefore we be heretics, and they (as they desire to be called) be Catholics, why do they not do what they see the fathers and all other Catholics have done? Why do they not convince us out of the holy Scriptures? Why do they not try us by them? Why do they not shew that we have made a defection from Christ, from the prophets, from the apostles, and from the holy fathers? Why do they stand? Why do they draw back? It is the cause of God! Why, then, should they fear to commit it to the arbitrement of the word of God? But if we are heretics who submit all our controversies to the holy Scriptures, and appeal to those very words which we know were consigned to writing by God himself, and prefer them before all other things which can possibly be excogitated by the wit of man; what are they, or by what name shall they be called, who fear and shun the sentence of the Scriptures, that is, the judgment of God himself, and prefer their own dreams and silly inventions before them, and have for some ages violated the institutions of Christ and his apostles, for the sake of their traditions? There is, a story of Sophocles the tragedian, that when he was very old, he was accused before the judges by his own sons for a childish and a silly person, as one that had wasted his estate by ill managery, and stood in need of a guardian in his old age to take care of him and it: the old man appeared in court, and, instead of a defence, recited

a tragedy, which he had very elaborately and elegantly written just in that time the suit was depending, and thereupon asked the judges if that poem were the work of a childish person.

17. So we therefore, because we are taken by them for madmen, and are traduced as if we were heretics, and as if we had nothing to do with Christ, nor with the church of God, have thought it not unreasonable or unprofitable to propound openly and freely the faith in which we stand, and all that hope which we have in Christ Jesus, that all may see what we think of every part of the Christian religion, and so determine with themselves, whether that faith which they must needs perceive to be consonant to the words of Christ and the writings of the apostles, and the testimonies of the catholic fathers, and which is confirmed by the examples of many ages, be only the rage of a sort of madmen, and a combination or conspiracy of heretics.

CHAPTER II.

Containing the Doctrine received in the Church of England.

1. WE believe that there is one certain nature and divine power which we call God, and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all of the same power, of the same majesty, of the same eternity, of the same divinity, and of the same substance; and although these three Persons are so distinguished, that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father; yet there is but one God, and this one God created heaven and earth, and whatever is contained within the circumference of the heavens.

2. We believe that Jesus Christ, the only Son of the eternal Father, as it had been decreed, before the beginning of all things, when the fulness of